Hubert Hurkacz took one step closer to lifting his first ATP Masters 1000 trophy after toppling fourth seed Andrey Rublev 6-3, 6-4 at the Miami Open presented by Itau on Friday.
The 26th-seeded Pole never allowed Rublev settle into a rhythm and unleash his powerful baseline game. Hurkacz fired 25 winners and broke serve three times across an hour and 28 minutes to reach the biggest final of his career.
“It means a lot, especially after winning a title at the beginning of the year, I had a couple of rough matches,” Hurkacz said in his on-court interview. “So I’m so happy that I came over and I was still trying to improve my game and trying to be a better player. This is really huge for me.”
Sinner Strikes Late To Reach Maiden ATP Masters 1000 Final
The fast-rising Pole has been looking right at home on the courts in Florida, where he lives and trains part-time – and where he began the season with a run to his second ATP Tour trophy at the Delray Beach Open by VITACOST.com. Hurkacz’s win over Rublev is also the ninth consecutive match he has won in Florida this year.
He can make it 10 in a row with a victory over 21st seed Jannik Sinner – his good friend and occasional doubles partner – in the championship match. The 19-year-old Italian is also into his maiden ATP Masters 1000 final and looking to seal a breakthrough week by becoming the youngest champion in tournament history.
“We played doubles together last week in Dubai,” Hurkacz said. “Now we’re playing in the final of a Masters 1000 event, so it’s going to be a fun match.”
Hurkacz brought a 1-0 ATP Head2Head lead into his semi-final against Rublev, having claimed victory in their only previous encounter last year at the Internazionali BNL d’Italia in Rome. He made a rapid start on Grandstand, where he quickly broke the Rublev serve to take a 3-0 lead.
Coming into the semi-finals, fourth seed Rublev had only dropped serve twice in the entire tournament – both times came at the hands of Sebastian Korda in the previous round – and had yet to drop a set. From 1-5 down, the Russian saved five set points across three games to narrow the gap, but Hurkacz sealed the set after 40 minutes.
Hurkacz continued to frustrate Rublev with an early break in the second set, breaking up the rallies with forays to the net and changing the direction of the ball with his backhand. Rublev once again had to dig deep to save a match point on his serve at 5-3 and push the Pole to three break points in the next game. But Hurkacz fired his eighth ace of the match to bring up his third match point, and he closed out the victory for a spot in the final.